Transmigrated as the Villainess, She Made the General Blush - Chapter 39

“Taking advantage of the rainy days, when there was no farm work to do, I secretly bought old hens in the village and sold them to wealthy households in the county town, making a little commission in the process.

“As long as I brought a few bags of pastries and fruits to the house stewards when I visited, those stewards would remember me whenever the kitchen needed to buy chickens, or when some master in the household needed to nourish themselves. They’d send someone to buy from me.

“Since the buyers from the county rarely came to the village, sometimes the villagers wanted to sell things but couldn’t find a way. So when I came to buy, I just said someone wanted to purchase, and they’d sell directly to me for convenience.

“A single chicken cost only two hundred wen when I bought it, but I could sell it for at least five hundred wen, which is half a tael of silver.

“Sometimes, when wealthy families held celebrations, saying a few nice words could even fetch two or three taels of silver for a chicken.

“I sold chickens like this for about half a year and saved up fourteen taels of silver.”

Beside him, Li Ta and the others listened, dumbfounded, unable to imagine that Ruan Fuxin could do such things at just twelve years old.

They had helped their parents hoe the fields since childhood until they came of age at twenty, but had never seen fourteen taels of silver!

This kid Ruan Fuxin, with his honest and sturdy appearance, sure had a lot of clever ideas!

Xiao Wangshu propped her forehead with one hand, listening to this part with a half-smile, her expression unreadable as she said, “Continue.”

This story was strikingly familiar; she probably did something similar when she was young.

Now, looking at Ruan Fuxin, she felt like an older version of herself seeing her younger self.

It was truly amusing.

Ruan Fuxin didn’t know what she meant, so he could only obey and continue-

“Later, my parents found out. They beat me and called me an ungrateful child, saying I had secretly kept so much silver without honoring them.

“They searched my room and, after finding five taels of silver, my mother took my younger brother to the county town to buy pastries and new clothes.

“That night, my father asked for one tael of silver back from them to return to me, along with two pieces of pastry and a flatbread, telling me to use that one tael to keep buying chickens in the village and earning money, but that all the money I made had to be handed over to them.

“He said I was too young to manage so much money myself.”

At this, Ruan Fuxin gave a self-mocking smile.

Such wonderful parents!

“No way! Fuxin, you actually listened to them?” Li Ta was already getting angry on his behalf.

Li Jun reminded him coolly from the side, “Brother, he was only twelve or thirteen then. What else could he do but listen?”

How many twelve- or thirteen-year-olds dare to defy their parents?

Ruan Fuxin nodded and said, “Indeed, I was too young then, still afraid of being kicked out of the house. Whatever money they found, I gave to them. As for what they couldn’t find, I kept for myself-otherwise, it would all go to my brother.”

Yichun couldn’t help but ask, “How strange! You’re all sons, so why are your parents so biased over there?”

Ruan Fuxin thought for a moment and replied, “It’s the same in several villages where I’m from. Because when parents get old, the youngest son is the strongest and healthiest.

“So parents live with the youngest son and rely on him for support in old age.

“People in the village treat the youngest son the best; all the other children have to give way to their younger brother.”

Zhang Guanye recalled and nodded in agreement, “In the southern outskirts of the capital, and in some remote villages in neighboring counties, this custom does exist.”

“What a ridiculous custom, it’s infuriating!” Yichun said, full of displeasure.

Ruan Fuxin gave another self-deprecating smile and said-

“I’m actually lucky, since I haven’t married yet. When my three older brothers got married, my parents didn’t give any bride price at all; it was all earned by my brothers doing hard labor outside.

“When the new sisters-in-law came in, my mother was still eyeing their dowries, wanting to use the dowries of the three sisters-in-law to build a brick house for my younger brother.”
“In the end, it was the sisters-in-law who made a scene, threatening to report to the authorities and go to the yamen. Only then did Mother give up her plans.

“After that, a few of my brothers and their wives insisted on splitting the family. Once they moved out, Father, Mother, and the villagers gossiped and cursed them behind their backs for years.

“Second Sister-in-law even drowned herself in the river because of it, leaving Second Brother to raise a young child alone. Eventually, Second Brother took the child and moved away; no one knows where they went.

“After someone died, the officials from the yamen came to investigate. Since Second Sister-in-law had committed suicide by drowning and it wasn’t a murder case, those officials could only scold the Lizheng a few times.

“After the officials left, the Lizheng lost his temper. From then on, the villagers became much more restrained in their speech, and Mother didn’t dare to point at the sisters-in-law and curse them like she used to.”

Zhang Guanye shook his head and sighed, “I’ve only heard of such customs before, but I never imagined they could be so filthy.”

Xiao Wangshu tapped her fingertips twice on the armrest, reminding him, “Alright, go on. What happened next?”

Ruan Fuxin came back to himself and continued-

“After seeing that there weren’t many hens left in the village, I started buying some from neighboring villages. I also got along well with the villagers from a few nearby villages, so whenever they had poultry or livestock to sell, they’d come to me.

“As for our own village, I bought the rest of the vegetables, fruits, and wild game that the villagers brought, then sold them to wealthy households or restaurants in the nearby county town.

“During those two years, I gradually saved up nearly two hundred taels of silver, planning to settle in the county town, buy a house to store goods, get a cart, and hire a few laborers to make future business easier.

“But I never expected my younger brother to get addicted to gambling and rack up a hundred taels of debt. The Gambling Den sent people to our home, saying that if we couldn’t pay, they’d chop off his hands and legs.

“My parents cried and screamed, forcing me to go to those wealthy families in the county to beg for money to save him. If I refused, they’d go themselves.

“If they really went and made a scene at those estates, my reputation would be ruined, and my business would be finished.

“In the end, I had no choice but to agree. I secretly withdrew a hundred taels from the money house, claiming I’d borrowed it from a restaurant owner.

“After paying off my brother’s gambling debt, my parents finally felt a bit guilty. For a long while, they stopped asking me for money and were even willing to listen to me and discipline my brother.

“I finally had some peace and could focus on my work.”

After hearing this, Li Ta was utterly shocked.

“So when you were just a teenager, you’d already earned almost two hundred taels of silver, even with your parents constantly taking money from you?”

Only now did Li Ta realize he had no idea about Ruan Fuxin’s ability to make money.

Zhang Guanye also asked, “Then why did you start earning less and less afterward?”

He even ended up in debt, which still hadn’t been paid off.

Ruan Fuxin pressed his lips together and, after a long pause, said-

“Later, my brother sneaked back into the Gambling Den. After losing money and fearing retaliation, he secretly went to the restaurant owner I mentioned to borrow money.

“He didn’t get the money, but he found out I’d lied last time and still had savings. So he told my parents.

“By then, I’d grown up, and my parents didn’t dare beat me anymore. But they still called me an ungrateful wretch, accused me of guarding my money from them after getting rich, said I was heartless, and demanded I pay off my brother’s gambling debts.

“It was only then that I truly realized-with parents like these, I had to split from the family. No matter how filial I was, they’d never change and would keep dragging me down.

“So I used my brother’s gambling debt as leverage to force my parents to agree to split the family and let me set up my own household.

“For the sake of my brother’s life, they agreed, though reluctantly. But they demanded that after the split, I must give them five taels of silver every month for their support.”